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Published: September 30th 2013
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We slept well having eaten in the Hotel Restaurant the night before….
Woolly says – I liked it when we asked for the menu and the man went to fetch it. He came back nearly 10 minutes later with a plate with frozen kofte and frozen chicken on it, then pointed to each and said “Kofte….Pilic” in his best English……I mean Turkish. Of course this was a slight problem for Jo. After a phone call and a lot of head shaking it appeared that Jo was having breakfast until Ian stepped in and sorted out some fish, and the meal turned out to be rather good.
The food was very good and the fish was perfectly cooked, unfortunately breakfast wasn’t available so we piled a moaning Mammoth into Ollie in the morning and headed off following the coast road. Once we were clear of the city we had the sea on the right and hills of green on the left, very pretty.
Woolly says – It didn’t seem much like the seaside though, lots of little harbours filled with small fishing boats and hardly any sand to sit and sun yourself on,
but I did spot some candy floss at one stall which shows there heading in the right direction. Although it was a four hour drive to Unye it passed quickly and Ollie lapped up the easy cruising miles along the sea. We stopped for a coffee and cake using our camping stove to brew up after insisting that Jo stop and get me something to munch on. We had three campsites to choose from, well there might be three campsites and as the first one hove into view the choice went down to two as there was no life at all. We drove on and found two together (one of them was on our list), both were open and our delight knew no bounds when the chosen one turned out to have a washing machine we could use for free.
Gulen Camping is right on the sea and although the facilities are a bit basic we have a lovely pitch with nothing but sea in front of us. Thirty five lira (approximately £11.30 GBP) and we are set for a relaxing afternoon of washing and shopping!
Woolly says – Monday started slowly with grey
overcast clouds overhead and the sea lashing the sand on the beach, breakfast done we were packed and on the road to Sinop. The drive wasn’t the most interesting, through small towns and larger ones it still didn’t feel like the seaside. We started to go further inland and the countryside became rolling hills with fields in fact it looked just like many areas of the UK. We kept getting glimpses of the sea though the houses until eventually we arrived back on the coast road. High rock faces on one side and the Black Sea which is very blue today, trade description problem here?
The views were a lot better and we could see the town of Sinop gradually getting closer. A quick stop for supplies we felt quite confident about this campsite but only bought items that could keep, just in case!
Woolly says – driving down a small unused road didn’t fill me with confidence but as we hit tarmac again Ollie sped round the last bends and there in front of us was a lovely large campsite with marked pitches, electric hook ups, all the facilities including a washing machine,
amazing. Only problem, except for the cow wandering round inside, it was CLOSED! James the sat nav had picked up another site so undeterred we drove the extra 2 KM to find another campsite that was closed, back we went to the first.
As there was a phone number we thought it was worth a try so Ian rang and spoke to the owner who said we could use the site and that his son would come down and sort out water, showers and cleaning, cost 40 TL (approximately £12.90 GBP).
Woolly says – I knew something was up as Jo wandered round the pitches in her shorts before arriving back at Ollie only to announce that with the wind blowing this hard it was going to be cold and because she is a bit dim she had no jeans to wear which meant she might freeze, what a girl. Ian grinned manfully and muttered ‘of course my love’ and set of down the road again.
To be fair I hadn’t expected the weather to be as cold as this and Ian being the lovely man he is didn’t want to
spend the night listening to my teeth chattering on top of my sneezing and snuffling. Retracing our steps for a few kilometres we took the left turn and started down the road heading South.
Woolly says – I secretly think Jo was right, after only ten minutes the temperature had shot up by 8 degrees and sweatshirts were being discarded. With the sun out and the clouds disappearing we sat back to admire the mountain views again. The road was great and with only one wrong turn which ended up at the edge of a reservoir it was a lovely drive, we started looking for accommodation at Kargi. The hotel didn’t look to grand and with the amount of attention we were attracting just sitting in Ollie we headed back out of the village. Half an hour later we saw signs for Atahan Hotel and decided come what may that was where we were staying, as long as it was open of course!
Luckily it was and although no one spoke any English, through sign language and the odd words of Turkish we managed to get a rather nice room, an evening meal (choose
of six dishes with rice or chips) and breakfast for 120 TL (approximately £38.70 GBP). The staff are lovely and couldn’t be more accommodating, helping us with our trays and bringing roasted chick peas (nice thought but not a nice taste) at the end of our meal. Tomorrow brings another campsite, will it be there? Will it be open? We’ll let you know.
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